#xf meta

[randomfoggytiger]

The 1980 trophy on the office shelf with the pregnancy book could have been Mulder's Intramural basketball sports league award. I know a few that give out trophies at the end of the season.

(Referring to @cecilysass's question here.)

I've never heard of that before but anon, you could be onto something. (After searching around, I think it's more than remotely plausible.)

Thank you!

[randomfoggytiger]

Hey 👋 just reading your All IVF Roads Lead Away from The Unnatural and to Millennium post, and I agree with the S6 timing for the IVF attempts. I never bought into the S7 timeline (I commented that on IG under a video and many people got upset) as the relationship shifted after Amor Fati. I won’t compare haircuts etc as we know this is all retcon

On the topic of retcon, what’s your theory on why CC / 1013 decided to add that IVF story in Per Manum?

I am not really sure how it adds to anything more, other than saying Scully’s pregnancy is a miracle and was deeply desired by both of them

The timelines on IVF / IVF process might have been butchered (and Mulder storing her ova in his pocket is a no-no but nvm), but I believe there was a deeper deliberate intention there, I never figured out what it was and I would love to hear your take on it.

Hey, luckily for everyone, Frank Spotnitz told us! :DDD

April 2001: The pivotal, if not confusing, mythology episode ‘Per Manum’ used flashbacks to establish the fact that, at some unspecified time in the past, Scully was trying to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization. (Per X-Files canon, Scully’s own abduction back in Season 2 left her barren.) The reasoning for bringing up the in vitro angle at all, Spotnitz explains, was twofold. “One is that [Scully’s infertility] was a thread of The X-Files’ mythology that had never been sewn up. Back in season 4, we saw Mulder with the harvested [ova] that they’d taken from Scully; but we’d never had an opportunity to address it until now. The other reason was that we have this bombshell with Scully’s pregnancy, but we have no emotional context for it. So it felt good to show the audience the back story for Scully and Mulder, leading up to this news that she was indeed pregnant.”

That's Spotnitz for you, always remembering and bringing back the dropped throughlines. For example: CC originally toyed with the idea of giving Maggie cancer in Season 4, but Frank (jointly with Shiban) recalled the MUFON women and presented Scully's cancer arc instead. (Spotnitz also thought up Scully's pregnancy as early as Season 5, which wasn't acted upon until he and CC closed the mytharc and plotted the road to Requiem.)

As an aside, the brain disease (I remain convinced) was a way to give Mulder a substantive subplot in DD's absence... and was butchered because there was nothing canonically to spring from (unlike the IVF arc-ish, which had its foundation in Season 4.) Contrast the unplanned nature of Mulder's health crisis (not a sign or symptom in Season 7) with the prominent arc of CSM's blatant decline (from Amor Fati-Requiem) and well.... Poorly done. A fact Spotnitz also acknowledged-- In the absence of pre-existing context for season 8’s dramatic surprises, the writers relied instead on flashbacks tailored to fit this year’s narrative. “Had I known there would be a season 8, I would have preferred to salt in all of the clues about these flashback episodes last season,” says Spotnitz of how he dealt retroactively with fitting in Mulder’s illness and Scully’s [pregnancy.] “But there really is no way to unravel these mysteries in my mind, and make use of David in the time that he was available to us, without having some flashback episodes.”

Anyway, hope that helps! And sorry for the delay!

[randomfoggytiger]

(Some of) David Duchovny's Contributions to Canon

Wikipedia, One Breath:

Wikipedia, Colony:

Wikipedia, Anasazi:

Wikipedia, Oubliette:

Wikipedia, Avatar:

Wikipedia, Talitha Cumi:

October 26 1997, Memento Mori: Duchovny asks to make changes in script or emotional content when a scene seems wrong. When Scully first tells Mulder in last season’s “Memento Mori” episode that she has brain cancer, the writers wanted him to cry. He objected.

“That’s not interesting to me,” Duchovny says. “It may be true, some people may react that way. But in my life, most people try not to feel. I see actors trying to feel. To me that’s unreal. We go through life trying not to cry.”

Instead of crying, Duchovny played composed but struggling. “Who cares if I’m crying. Are you crying watching?”

Wikipedia, Kill Swtich:

Wikipedia, Travelers:

Wikipedia, Mind's Eye:

Wikipedia, All Souls:

July 30, 1998: VOX: Did you implant that mythical level into the show?

Duchovny: When you start to do a show, when Chris starts to write the show, really what exists is that first script and in that first script all that exists about Mulder is that he´s interested in aliens. Life began when he went under hypnotic regression and came to believe that his sister was abducted by aliens when he was 12. This is really all we had. The rest of all the stuff we had to create because we had to make more shows. Chris never had it in his mind, certainly I never assumed that anything like that existed. Just like in “Twin Peaks", the first show is “Who killed Laura Palmer?" - David Lynch didn´t know who killed Laura Palmer, that just happend. He had to say as he went on. So, we had to do more shows, we had to explain the past, we had to dramatize the past in certain ways. I wanted to be involved in that because it was my character and I wanted to be able to play interesting things. So there were certain kind of moves and certain kinds of movements mythological that I like in other stories like starwars, Joseph Campbell´s writings or pick and choose from anywhere wich is what we do. The idea I had was in that movie, Sophie´s Choice, they are taking Sofie´s boy and just impulsively she gives them the girl. So I thought what if that happened to Mulder - if they came to abduct him and his mother as they were taking Mulder away gave them the girl. We haven´t seen that episode yet, but I would like to have that play and all these little things that we steal. There is stuff we still haven´t done, that I enjoyed like being involved and figuring out how it all happened.

Wikipedia, Milagro:

Wikipedia, The Unnatural: Originally, Darren McGavin was set to reprise his role as Arthur Dales; the character had previously appeared in the fifth-season episode "Travelers" and the sixth-season episode "Agua Mala". Unfortunately, two days into filming, McGavin suffered a stroke, forcing Duchovny and the producers to scrap the few scenes he had shot, rewrite the script to explain his absence, and replace his character with M. Emmet Walsh.

Wikipedia, Amor Fati:

Wikipedia, Closure:

Wikipedia, Deadalive:

Wikipedia, Alone:

Wikipedia, Existence:

What part of the mythology didn't David Duchovny contribute to??

Wikipedia, William:

Also relevant: David Duchovny's Contributions to the Mythology DD McGuyvering S8 and S9 Together

Other posts: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

BONUS

The Official Guide to The X-Files, Vol 1: Part of Duchovny's goal has been to flesh out the character of Fox Mulder-which, he points out, was understandably vague when the show began-in order to make the part more enticing for him as a performer. "It's definitely been exciting, just something added to my experience, in terms of being able to guide the destiny of the character," he explains. "Because the character had no destiny. Like any TV show, you're forced to eventually create a history for the character that it never had."

Once The X-Files had survived the initial Nielsen weeding-out process and he and Carter realized the show was going to be around for a while, Duchovny offers, "it became important to me as an actor to make that history as interesting as I could."

The second-season finale, entitled "Anasazi," and revelations about Mulder's family played out in the two opening episodes of the third season, offer such mythic highlights, exploring Mulder's character and family history, down to his father's role in alien experimentation. Those episodes also shed light on the abduction of Mulder's sister, Samantha, which figured prominently in the character's motivation. From Duchovny's perspective, those mythic qualities can be found as well in movies ranging from Star Wars to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Those episodes, he maintains, coupled with earlier story arcs have "created a unique mythology for television in the character, and I'm really proud of that fact-that I was conscious enough to say to Chris, 'Look, I have some ideas, I want to be involved with the creation of this myth."

Duchovny contends that Anderson's pregnancy and brief absence unwittingly contributed to that emotional resonance. Having Mulder search for her echoed the loss he felt in losing his sister, while Scully's abduction gave her an experience to draw upon-all of which, in Duchovny's eyes, provided "raw material to use in the future."

According to the actor, the depth of those episodes stands above "a kind of formula that we were drifting into in the middle of last year" with stand-alone installments dealing with whatever monsters and/or paranormal phenomena the writers could dream up. In terms of producing those hours, he contends, The X-Files was "maybe an interesting show, maybe better than most shows...but as an actor, not so interesting to play."

Now the show can go back and forth, delving into it mythology, then pulling back to do more standard and self-contained episodes. "The intensity's too much, and it can get melodramatic," Duchovny says regarding the need to break up the mythology segments, adding that the producers have achieved a "nice balance now" between the two.

Seeming as much of a perfectionist as Carter, Duchovny acknowledges that he occasionally bristles when he's presented with a deluge of gobbledygook dialogue-those sequences where Mulder launches into remarkably detailed explanations about some event or series of events from the past. "At first it was almost impossible-it's kind of a muscular thing," he says. "You try and make it interesting from an acting point of view...[But] sometimes it's just like you memorize...and spit it out."

At times, Duchovny admits, he worries that the longer narrative exercises can become "the Fox Mulder bedtime story," and he'll occasionally ask the writers, "Can we tell the story a little better?" He also concedes that it's not easy crafting the equivalent of a movie each week in the time available, and that he realizes there are times when such exposition becomes necessary. As a result, Duchovny has served notice to the writers that he'll wrestle with those speeches, "but you better give me a nice scene later on to pay me back," he says.

[randomfoggytiger]

Consortium Mulder and Self-Destruction

If Mulder had been tricked or forced into Syndicate recruitment, he would have self-destructed.

3, One Breath, Grotesque, Patient X, even Pine Bluff Variant prove this thesis: his soul fades in prolonged shadow, inactive. Without purpose or the promise of his ideals-- without the truth-- Mulder dies.

And I imagine the young man stopping beneath weak street light, a sliver of death between his teeth, exchanging smoke and smog with the dark until his lungs blacken and wither away, would wish for death.

Would be unable to reach out and claim it for himself.

[randomfoggytiger]

Diana Fowley (and Mulder's Wedding Ring)

A Frank Spotnitz interview, notes courtesy of EattheCorn.

February 7, 2024: Diana Fowley: the writers wanted to play the ambiguity regarding Fowley’s allegiance, on who to trust, Mulder’s or Scully’s reading of Fowley? To the point where Mulder calls on Fowley’s bluff to see where her loyalties lie (end of One Son). But how the episode reads to the viewer is that she is an antagonist to M&S, not as ambiguous as intended. He would have liked to see more of Fowley. “That was explicitly one of the reasons why we wanted the Fowley character, it was a way to indirectly mine the sexual tension between M&S, by creating this new threat that you hadn’t really seen since s1, a rival for Scully”.

On Mulder’s wedding ring (Unusual Suspects, Travelers): definitely not in the writers’ intention, was a DD thing: “we didn’t have the visual effects capability to erase the ring.” All the fan theories about Fowley being the ex-wife are good, but they were “not in the text”.

[randomfoggytiger]

Dear research goddess, I recently stumbled upon a post that got me thinking.

Main post dealt with the fact that female trauma is only chosen to evolve a male characters growth. That's something I'm totally d'accord. Especially in the nighties lots of female characters only asset was to show mens emotional side (back in the day when emancipation was thought -by men, of course- to be about men getting in touch with their softer side, instead of equality of the genders. Yeah, takes a lot of nerve to use a word created by women and a movement created by women to be about men, but let's not start on that...)

But someone wrote in the comments that Scullys pregnancy falls into that category too. Saying she would have been fine with Scully chosing work over kids like she always did. Maybe I'm projecting but I don't see it that way. (That the whole pregnancy arc was just to deal more trauma to Scully, yes I see that.) For me it was never a question of job OR kids. I always thought more along the lines of first career THEN a child for her. But my only argument in favor would be the dialogue with Ellen in Jersey Devil and even then she is not openly saying I want kids, just that she struggles to see herself as a mother (meaning she gave the whole kids idea a thought or two).

Do you and your unending depth of knowledge have any inkling towards Scully wanting (or not wanting, I might be wrong) kids?

I think the pregnancy arc is a complicated topic for a lot of people in the fandom, compounded by (perhaps) Gillian's own experiences with her work and early motherhood. To me, it's a Requiem stratagem: something different for the character and a mystery to (hopefully) launch from tv to movies. 20th Century Fox didn't bite-- thus, the scramble for Season 8 story lines. Reportedly, both GA and DD were excited by the possibility of Scully's pregnancy because it was new territory for them to explore (post here.) CC and Spotnitz were excited because they crafted the surprise during the season of secret sex. The other actors (namely Mitch Pileggi, Robert Patrick, and Annabeth Gish) were excited to either have a greater part and/or to join in for the ride.

Importantly, Gillian liked the character work of Scully going through trauma (post here.) In fact, her thoughts for Season 8 were actually darker than anything CC or Spotnitz planned (post here.) She had her quibbles with the writing here or there, but she praised the writers, the direction, the show itself for most of its run (except the adoption and eventually MSIV.) Was the pregnancy arc/baby arc perfect? Nope. Was she an interested participant? Yes.

As for the other points, well....

Did Scully want kids?

She showed interest as early as The Jersey Devil... second to her ambitions and with the caveat of a suitable partner. But that's normal, and healthy, for someone in her stage of life: it doesn't mean she prized kids less than her career. And that wasn't the whole picture: TJD could be swept away as a CC quirk (he wrote the episode), but Morgan and Wong (whose work Gillian loved) brought this theme back in Home-- the objective then was for Mulder and Scully to surprise each other with more "normal"/human sides of themselves (interview here.) "Never saw you as a mother before" from the lips of a man open to settling down, possibly, after finding his answers: a big deal. An even bigger deal: Scully directly challenges him about the health of his genetics immediately after expressing fear over her future children's health. A year later (A Christmas Carol), Scully revealed she had wanted a family, but her infertility diagnosis made her realize how much she wanted one-- enough to leave her job in order to adopt Emily (which could have been a symptom of manifesting grief, but suffice to say: a big deal.) It was Scully, again, who raised the settling down/normal life question in Dreamland I and the IVF arc. And lest we forget: Mulder was the man she asked these questions to; and Mulder didn't say yes to any sort of parental care role until the IVF arc (post-The Unnatural, posts here and here.) Scully was living her life and making her peace with "we just keep driving"-- she was happy that way. Parenthood may have been a great aspiration, one she felt keenly, but it was survivable (until William....)

I don't think motherhood was an unnatural journey for her character: family's important to Scully; she's great with kids; she always had the plan in the back of her mind for the future. But she had things to prove first... (which is why the pregnancy arc would have worked so well if the writers didn't throw in super soldiers last minute, because she and Mulder had already proved they were right, finally got together, and became pregnant, thus enabling them to fight leftover alien/Consortium factions and plan for Colonization while also being able to take a step back or two, breathe, and live their lives with their happy ending-- BUT I DIGRESS.)

Was Scully's trauma male-centered?

I've come across many 90s interviewers who tried to paint Scully as a victim or unappreciated by the show or the writers (one of the worst, post here), an idea which Gillian valiantly jousted against. Was her character perfectly written? No. But neither was any character on the show (Nicholas Lea became so frustrated he reportedly vowed not to return, for example.)

And to be quite honest, Scully was treated with greater respect than Mulder sometimes: Mulder was often made more fun of, was a little less capable in social situations (e.g. losing his gun all the time), and had more cracks made about him (ones not exclusive to Darin Morgan episodes) than any of the writers ever gave to Scully. (DD talked about this a lot during the original run, then affectionately termed those moments as "Stupid Mulder" in the Revival.) Scully's dignity was never purposefully degraded or brought into question-- and it worked for her character and the MSR dynamic. And to be even more honest (and this is just my opinion), I don't believe Scully suffered more damage than Mulder did: they were mishandled by the writers to equal degrees (as unpopular as that opinion is.) We feel her struggles keenly because of what she meant to us and represented for women, but Mulder was also butchered, often concurrently (the brain disease arc, leaving his family on Scully's flimsy say-so, his half of IWTB, most of the My Struggle episodes, I could go on.) Bad is bad no matter if it's a regressive plot line or just lazy, sloppy, or uncreative choices. And every show has these instances, no matter the writing team (for simple comparison: I've watched a lot of women-dominated media with the same problems, too.) (What is more important to me are the writers' intentions: did they mean to come across x/y/z way, or was it just a fluke or incompetence? I will more easily forgive and move past an error or a true-hearted endeavor than a cynical, calculated point.)

If anything, Mulder's arc is female-centered (finding his sister, proving himself to Scully) while Scully's is self-centered (positively.) The few times she becomes male-centered are when she's most off-balance (Never Again, all things.) And that was a sentiment that every male on the writing team hammered home at one point or another: M/S were equals, soulmates, best friends, and respected partners. Scully in Memento Mori wanted to find the truth "for my own reasons." Scully chose the IVF journey despite societal judgments and expectations. Scully and Mulder remained unmarried partners. All are decisions outside the bounds of conventional perspectives of women and women's autonomy. (Further, none of the all-male writing team were fond of the adoption arc, nor did they co-sign either pregnancy reveal-- those were CC decisions, for his own reasons. To be discussed in a future post.)

Truly this post could keep going; but it's probably more productive to end now and spare us from my ramblings. :DDD

In summary: Gillian wanted darker material (i.e. more trauma) than the writers often gave her, the pregnancy arc started from an understandable place before it devolved, Scully's openness to a family was coded into canon long before etc. etc., and I've noticed most of the writers on The X-Files weren't fans of the... questionable elements of the show (except CC, which is his preference).

Even shorter summary: reductive problems exist in all media no matter which gender is holding the pen.

[randomfoggytiger]

Why Chris Carter Adopted Out William (My Theory)

In the early seasons, Mulder had lost someone (his sister.) That absence marked the highs and lows of his arc. That loss impacted Scully, too (though her own journey was one of self-actualization.)

Then Season 7 resolved matters in Closure and all things, in the hopes that the show would kick off into movies.

It did not.

Season 8 was scrambled together and created to be the conclusion to the original series, to kick off into the movies.

It did not.

Season 9 was turned over to Doggett and Reyes, mainly, in the hopes that DD and GA would then be transferred into a movie franchise.

They did not.

CC decided over Christmas that the plug needed to be pulled. Then he decided to adopt out William.

Why?

William became the new Samantha for both characters: the someone "out there" to long for, the wound Mulder and Scully would therefore build their arcs off of (as seen in Season 9.)

...Then CC backtracked Mulder all the way back to Samantha (and aliens) and kept him there instead of progressing (which erased his growth in Season 7-8, as well as the glimpses in Season 9.)

Although CC didn't backtrack Scully, he also gave her no fresh material. So, technically, her arc had advanced more than Mulder's... but was no less boxed in, restrictive, or one note.

And etc.

[randomfoggytiger]

My love for Season 8 is mainly rooted in its ending: Mulder and Scully on a new page together. And, importantly, parents to a normal baby.

However, I do have lingering curiosities (for a future meta, perhaps?)

Frank Spotnitz spearheaded the pregnancy arc

Frank Spotnitz intended to helm Season 9 in CC's absence (who came back because GA was under contract)

Frank Spotnitz intended to give William powers

Since Frank Spotnitz insisted William was Mulder's... and did not intend to adopt William out.... And since the old mythology had ended and CSM was still dead.... And since Season 9's original plan (if I recall correctly) changed after CC signed on last minute....

What was Frank Spotnitz's idea for Season 9 originally?

What did he hope to do with William's special abilities? What did this mean longterm for Mulder and Scully and their son?